DWE Gardens

DATE: 1927

LEVEL: Series

This series consists of Dorothy Elmhirst's personal papers relating to the Dartington Hall Gardens. Within Box 1 there is correspondence with landscape designers, professional gardeners and horticulturists, such as L S Fortescue of The Garden House, Buckland Monachorum; Michael Haworth-Booth; Edward Hyams; Dartington Hall Gardens superintendents; Lanning Roper; Constance Spry; and H Avray Tipping. A separate folder devoted to landscape designer Beatrix Farrand includes correspondence and notes on planting schemes and garden design and an article and obituary for her by Dorothy Elmhirst. Included also is a copy of the 'Eighth Dumbarton Oaks Colloquium on the History of Landscape Architecture, Beatrix Jones Farrand, Dartington Hall' by Laurence J Fricker (1982), and correspondence with Beatrix's husband, Max Farrand. A further separate folder relating to landscape designer, Percy Cane, contains the Elmhirsts' and the Garden department's correspondence, notes and minutes, which document consultation with Cane and his work on parts of the immediate surrounds of the Hall and its gardens, from 1945 until shortly before Cane's death in the early 1970s. Planting schemes for other areas at Dartington are also included. A notebook that belonged to Leonard Elmhirst documents Cane's visits in 1970 and 1971. Articles from the 1970s re a biography, 'Percy Cane: Garden Designer', by Ronald Webber are also included. An article 'Davidia involucrata' by Dorothy Elmhirst and her talks to Robin Tanner's teachers courses, including 'How the Garden at Dartington Hall was re-made', are included in this box. There is a reference to the idea for a scheme for agricultural and horticultural training. Correspondence relates to the Dartington Cottage Garden Show Society, the September gardening courses, and to visits by the Garden Club of America. Other material relates to the creation of the first Hall Gardens pamphlet. Papers relate to the siting of 'Flora' (dht1006) the garden statue presented to Leonard and Dorothy Elmhirst on Foundation Day, 1967. Box 2 contains nurserymen's invoices and lists of plants purchased. Box 3 contains correspondence and details of costs between 1945 and 1952 relating to the replenishment and upkeep of the Hall Gardens under the 'Cane Plan', which was funded by the Elmgrant Trust. Notebooks containing Dorothy Elmhirst's ideas and designs for plantings in areas of the Hall Gardens are held in Boxes 4 and 5. Relevant press articles are also included in boxes 3, 4 and 5. Boxes 6 and 7 contain Dorothy Elmhirst's garden notebooks or diaries, which she kept from 1940 until her death in 1968.

Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst were intimately concerned with the creation of the Hall Gardens from 1925 when they purchased the Dartington Hall estate until their deaths. Working with landscape designers, trees and shrubs were introduced, lawns created to emphasise space, evergreens to provide year round interest and vistas were opened up to allow great trees to stand out and to give access to views of the countryside beyond. Dorothy Elmhirst was instrumental in the choice of plants, especially from the years of the Second World War, when she became particularly involved with the gardens. It was Dorothy's feeling for the positioning of plants and the subtle combination or contrasting of colours that gives the Gardens their uniqueness. She had a wide knowledge of plants and was familiar with their botanical names, keeping a card index system of each new plant with a description of its place in the gardens and background history. She drew up rough planting designs for many areas of the gardens, and kept garden notebooks/diaries. She gave occasional lectures and wrote articles related to the Hall Gardens. She was involved in the writing and production of the booklet, 'The Gardens at Dartington Hall', a revised version of which continues to be on sale. H Avray Tipping visited in 1927 to advise on design of the Hall Gardens. R Stewart Lynch was appointed as Gardens Superintendent in 1928 on the basis of his training in horticulture and landscape design and was responsible for the development of the open air theatre. The American landscape designer, Beatrix Farrand, who made her first visit in 1933, redesigned the courtyard, and her planning provided a large portion of the structural foundation of the gardens. Her visits finished with the outbreak of the Second World War and her successor after the war was Percy Cane. He was at that time among the most fashionable of British landscape designers. The design of many areas can be attributed to him, including the heath bank steps.

Information for Researchers

All papers belonging to The Dartington Hall Trust Archive (with the exclusion of Dartington Hall School pupils individual records) are held at the Devon Record Office. All enquiries relating to research should be made to Devon Records Office, Great Moor House, Bittern Road, Sowton, Exeter, Devon EX2 7NL
+44 (0)1392 384253
+44 (0)1392 384256
devrec@devon.gov.uk
www.devon.gov.uk/record_office

The following requests should be made direct to the Archives & Records at The Dartington Hall Trust as shown below:
Copies of images as seen on The Dartington Hall Trust online catalogue with appropriate reference number (Ref No.)
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Former pupils of Dartington Hall School wishing to view their records
Archives & Records
The Dartington Hall Trust
Dartington Hall
Totnes TQ9 6EL
01803 847200
yvonne.widger@dartington.org

This information is copyright The Dartington Hall Trust